(60th Entry) Adventures in San Miguel

On Monday we did indeed open our candle factory. We spent the day doing the final touches, installing and testing the actual equipment. And then… on Tuesday morning we melted paraffin for the very first time. A very exciting moment!!!

My family sells and now makes “in house” the Santa Rosa Mexican Church Candle… They’re made the traditional way… the paraffin is poured over and over the wick to make a candle that flows… to see examples… go to www.roseannhalldesigns.net

I worked in the corporate world for 11 years and ran a non-profit organization for approximately five years prior to that. The experience of helping and watching my family open a business in Mexico 2 ½ years ago has been the most amazing learning experience in my life. I wish that I could have had this experience prior to going into the corporate world. I have learned more about people, business, factories, production, motivation and most of all I have learned an incredible amount about myself. I hope that I’ve been changed by this experience. I think I have.

My life in San Miguel de Allende Mexico over the past two years has been an incredible adventure. It started because of hurricane Rita in September of 2005 which was coming towards Galveston, TX… but missed and of course we all know the out-come… more devastation to Louisiana. The family business couldn’t get the 18 wheeler full of inventory to Galveston, so over-night practically we moved the business to Mexico.

Our first two years in the business were spent just as they were in Galveston. We bought items and then wholesaled through out the U.S. Six months ago we opened our first factory and this week our second.

Mexico… is a very interesting place! Doing business can be not only interesting, but sometimes very frustrating. When you’re raised in one culture and have learned what to expect… coming to a new culture to do business can be definitely interesting.

For those who have read the blog before, my goals in the Mission Statement are apparent. In our two new factories, I’m making progress on hiring disabled individuals. Of course there are obstacles, but nothing impossible. It just takes time.

I’ve come so far in fulfilling my dreams in the Mission Statement. We’re so close. Times are tough right now and it’s taking everything we have to survive through these economic times. They too shall pass… We’ve invested a lot in the hope, dreams and future of all of our lives. Life is a gamble!

The interesting thing about dreams is that sometimes you do things that might seem impossible, irrational… things that you might never do if it was just for business. I think about Martin Luther King’s speech… “I have a Dream!” How important are your dreams? How far are willing to go to fulfill them?

What I’ve learned these past two and a half years are the things that are important to me… in my life. What do I value? What do I believe in? Who and what are important in my life?

I think I’ve talked in my blog before about my life changing during my adolescent years. I’m beginning to have those qualities back that I had as a child, the one’s that I lost along the way in life.

I talk often about this desire for us to “just go on with life”, not searching or asking questions. I’m beginning to see that for me… I lost “the dream” and I see what happens when we do that. It’s so easy for us to get “hardened” by life… to just go on!

The irony… I’m back in Mexico! I grew up coming to Mexico every summer until the age of 12… adolescents! I came back 2 ½ years ago… there’s something magical for me in Mexico. It goes back to when I was young. There are only two places I go that I have the feeling that I’m at home… Mexico and New York City.

So much more to express…